These tattoos could be used for monitoring dehydration or sugar levels.
The trend of tattooing is becoming more and more popular today, but this new technology idea is simply stunning – some of the leading scientists of today from Harvard and MIT have developed a technology that could change the way we do our regular health tests. According to a new study in this area, tattoos could monitor sugar and water levels in the body, and change its color accordingly. The study details can be found here.
The partner of this project is the Dermal Abyss, and as they say, the tattoos are exactly like the ‘right thing’ except for one thing – the tattoos contain fluorescent biosensors and colorimetric to keep the track of your health every minute of the day. These sensors detect concentrated amounts of sodium, glucose, and hydrogen which would result in the change of your ‘dermal look’ or tattoo.
Everything is possible because of the earlier mentioned sensors that work on the simple principle; when the levels are too low or too high, ink changes its color accordingly. This team of scientists has developed two green colored inks, one when the glucose levels are low (turns to brown) and the other one when the sodium concentration rises (turns to blue). It was already tested on the pigskin as it is the most similar type of skin to our human, and the results were amazing.
This team of scientists has developed two green colored inks, one when the glucose levels are low (turns to brown) and the other one when the sodium concentration rises (turns to blue). It was already tested on the pigskin as it is the most similar type of skin to our human, and the results were amazing.
There are many applications of these kinds of tattoos, and you would be surprised how well this scientific idea could be used. For example, athletes can use these kinds of tattoos to monitor their critical levels of certain ingredients in their body, as well as astronauts, who need a special treatment in space conditions which means that all their intense treatments and space training could become much easier with this invention.
What is positive about this concept is something that other people may find very negative and vice versa. If you take this concept and imagine that no electronics are used in the process, something that instantly comes to your mind is that it could be a great idea. But once you realized that all the sensors are injected directly into your skin, you might be frightened.
Also, there might be some people that would like to try out this concept, but they do not want a permanent covering on their skin in the form of the tattoo. Also, the problems might be in the nature of privacy; with that being said, some people do not want everybody else to track their health directly by the skin, so the idea of these tattoos being visible only under special light might come to the realization very soon.
In conclusion, this could be a game-changing concept for both the people using it as well as the health improvement and technology advancing in many different paths. But this still is just a concept and a lot of work needs to be done until this becomes reality.
